Finding 'she' in the streets, in the stars

Women form the focal point in the immersive visual narratives of award-winning artist Santosh Jain, writes Shilpi Madan

The Daily Dose

Three Band

Santosh Jain

For septuagenarian self-taught artist Santosh Jain, it was a natural progression to shape her collection of artworks titled She’s In the Streets, She’s in the Stars while drawing in her experiences spanning seven decades. Women form the crux of her expressions and are the pivotal points in all their strength and resilience.

Why women? “A lot of my work explores narratives around women, where I see them as emotional beings, silent sufferers, pillars of strength and also game players,” shares Santosh. “There is both sympathy and empathy. The collection at Method Kalaghoda in Mumbai recently had a series of artworks created during different periods of my life. In all the works, women enjoy the centre stage. A few works are layered personal narratives, some are a comment on the treatment of women in society — her emotions, desires and hopes that are often pushed back to serve the patriarchal system. These works are a second language that allow me to freely share long-forgotten episodes of my lifetime, my innermost feelings. Sometimes the same woman recurs in multiple artworks, and sometimes her presence is fleeting, though no less important. The women in my artwork are you, they are me. They are in the stars, they are in the streets.”

Fluid forms

By using mediums as a language of expression, Santosh’s artistic ruminations over the years have included lithographs, charcoals, paintings and photographs, and more recently digital landscapes. She picked up the camera at 62 and decided to explore digital art. In this series, there are fluid forms: in animal shadows that move through the artworks with transient ease. As do male forms. “Art for me is a second language and helps me express my inner concerns. While women are the central character in my stories, there is no story without the man, his surroundings and other life. Foliage, animals and the male forms form the negative space in my works,” she explains. “An abundant use of images allows me to weave stories and create a world of suspended conversations.”

The artworks course through earthy hues, black and whites, geometrics, shadows, repetitive forms…“There was a period in my life where I was fascinated by black and white drawings. I explored graphite, charcoal and Chinese ink, enjoying creating the series as it was a different medium for me to express myself in,” confesses Santosh. Then there are manifestations, the emergence of feelings, symbols, evocative of the larger storyline in the women decoder.

Fusing images

Then there is the clever juxtaposition of generations. A fleeting semblance of the legendary Shakuntala in blue, with a kitschy scooter in the background. “In my Digital Landscapes, time turns fluid, allowing me to fuse disparate images, icons and people from different places, seamlessly,” explains Santosh. “To create a comparison between interpretations done in the past with the contemporary times, I sometimes lace my own photographs of every day with acknowledged works of old masters. For instance, the work with Shakuntala. Even in that period, women were beautiful and elegant. They too suffered irrespective of their social status, whether they came from royal families or from the streets. Men, on the contrary, felt a sense of privilege and did as they pleased.”

She handpicks Joyride, Blue Period and Fool’s Paradise as her favourites from this collection. “Joyride encapsulates what it is like being a woman, trying to please a man in what is clearly a man’s world. One can see a nude woman trying to lure the male, an acrobat woman — trying to please not one but many people in society, women dressed in traditional attire taking on a more acceptable domestic role, a woman trying to blend in with the men in the train… but the man is unaffected. He’s lost in his own world,” says Santosh. What has been her biggest learning as a woman artist? “I believe women artists can raise their voices through their art. Especially after the MeToo movement, I find women getting bolder in expression. And I think that’s great,” smiles Santosh. Up next is the Languish Series (available for viewing on her website www.artbysantoshjain.com) which is a collection of mixed media, oil pastels, collages that Santosh began creating as a response to the second wave that rocked Delhi in March 2021 onwards.